OT: My job's being eliminated

I recently found out that my plant is eliminating the hourly position of Maintenance Specialist. Soon, I will be going back on rotating shift as a multi-craft maintenance technician. I have been doing the specialist job for about 6 years and have become quite good at what I do. This plant has about 2300 employees and 25 maintenance specialists who keep the place running no matter what goes wrong. We get paid 50 cents an hour more than regular maintenance, are on call 24/7/365, and are responsible for practically everything. A rotating shift techinician get 75 cents an hour bonus and built in overtime of 2.5 hours per week, so it's actually a raise for me. Once on shift, my responsibilies will be tiny compared to what I have now, and I won't be on call.

The plant engineering manager has decided replace us with salaried staff positions called equipment engineers. The company doesn't like the fact that they are totally dependent on 25 people and they have no clue what we actually do or how we do it.

The staff position will undoubtedly be a huge pay cut for most. Some specialists make $90k annually with all the overtime they put in. The equipment enginner will start at around $55k-60k and, once you're a salaried member of staff, they own you. They tell you how to dress, what to say, how to act, and can relocate you anywhere in the plant (or the world) at the drop of a hat.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens when most of the 25 experts here leave the position (some of us will probably leave the company) and we have a bunch of rookies trying to keep the place going.

I really love what I'm doing now. I am probably the most proficient A/B PLC programmer in the plant, and I'd like to keep doing that. I plan to develop my resume' and look elsewhere for work. Without a degree, I may not be able to bring in the income that I feel I deserve, but I'm gonna try anyway. If I can't make more money nearby, I'll just have to be content turning wrenches.

The biggest problem for me is location. There are only three factories in this town, and I have three kids rooted here living with my ex-wife. To make a decent living, I'll probably have to go at least as far as Dallas.

My real goal is to stay here and become a freelance programmer or control system consultant. I am confident in my skills, but I don't have the degree and all the expensive tools (software) to back it up, so it may be some years before I would be able to tackle that on my own.

When I go to the rotating 12 hour shift schedule, I will have 8 day breaks every month. It would be nice to be able to spend some of those days off doing side jobs in the field that I love.

Anybody looking for a hard working jack-of-all-trades controls guy near Lawton, Oklahoma?

Paul C.

Paul,

Nice rant. Look at it this way...with out the overtime your support payments might go down. But dont hesitate to file a motion with the FOC. In most states change in support is NOT retro active to the day your income took a hit, but only to the day that you applied for a review/modification. (you learn a lot of this **** by signing the front of paychecks)

All that aside, given your discription of the situation my guess is the shift is to lower or eliminate OT. I'm sure if you do the math you'll find that's the theroy. After a while they might find it's not working and you'll be back at your old job. It sounds like a big plant. Somewhere they've got an egg-head watching trends. Production, payroll, profit etc...These trends dont lie and are really hard to ignore. They might get a payroll savings of 10% but extended shutdowns might cut production by 5% of a much bigger number = lost profits.

Dont panic, hang in there and see what happens...

Dont sell yourself short..Just becouse you dont have a "degree" it dosnt mean you cant do the job or get the money..

Think of the software as an "Investment"..You cant do the job with out the tools!!

I purchased Rslogix 500 and 5000 (standard) about 6 years ago..then started to push the selling..it took untill last year..then the "investment" paid off..

While a degree looks good and dont get me wrong, It IS good you can still go far without it..If your employer is only willing to pay you becouse of what you have hanging on the wall..move on..You can have all the degree's in the world and still not be able to do your job..Hell i have a 3rd year apprentice who hasnt done intermidate trade school yet and he is earning what a sparky gets..why..becouse he is good at what he does.. He runs jobs, a service truck and knows what he is doing..compare to the licenced guy i let go becouse he..knw hoe to run a pipe IF i told him where to run it from and to..Had no clue how to interact with customers, and to be honest..didnt have clue..Just goes to show..A piece of paper is only as good as the person who holds it..

Just my 2 c

Hang in and go on your own..it may be a rough go..but think big..look outside the area for some work..you may be gone for a week or two..but it gets your name out..

Ever consider relocating to GA?

http://web3.automationdirect.com/static/CompanyInfo/Sub_pages/Jobs/jobs_industrial_control_spec.html

Andy

Well Paul, in the long run, I think it will work out for you. You are in a good position, since you still have a job. There will be time to search out other prospective employers, investigate starting something on your own, and many other options. Plenty of time available for the kids, etc.

I once worked with a $90,000 a year electrician, who had earlier been offered the the job that I had, as a plant electrical engineer. He had been offered $1 per hour more then his electrician wage, and would have got $40K, a mere $50K cut. They couldn't understand why he didn't jump at the job.

Corporate America loves to give it to the employees up the ......

I would rather be in management, even though the working class generally made more $$$. Back when I was the plant engineer mentioned above, I was ordered in to fix a machine that wasn't broke, which was 3 hours from where I lived. When I move closer, it wasn't close enough to suit them, so we parted ways, and I returned to "contract life".

Boy, I miss the 60's. You could get a job, and stay for life. Or until it closed in the 80's or 90's. And they almost trated you human.

Oh well....

regards.....casey

Corporate America is in general up against a wall called Asia.

As long as the Western economies continue to allow the re-introduction of virtual slavery (ie exploiting low cost Asian labour), then you will continue down the path of wages and conditions being eroded until you reach an equilibrium with India and China. There is no rational argument against this, it is only a matter of time. Prepare now.

PhilipW said:

Corporate America is in general up against a wall called Asia.

As long as the Western economies continue to allow the re-introduction of virtual slavery (ie exploiting low cost Asian labour), then you will continue down the path of wages and conditions being eroded until you reach an equilibrium with India and China. There is no rational argument against this, it is only a matter of time. Prepare now.

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Figure the trade imbalance this way on a grand scale. The economesy are like buckets. The standard of living is represented by the level of the water in each bucket. The U.S.'s bucket is 3'deep and pretty full, however it's stedally draining into a very huge shallow lake, causing the level (standard of living) to lower as the water (money) pools out along the dry lake bottom of Asia's economey. When our bucket is eventually emptied, the standard of living (water level) will have only rased a smiggen in the huge dry lake. There will be no equilibrim. The other sad truth is that you cannot stop the flow in today's global economey. Like it our not, your children and grand children are not going to enjoy the same standard of living that we or our parents have been enjoying.

Mike, we are saying the same thing..just expressed differently. When some Chinese company starts selling AD and AB knockoffs for 1/10th the price (with free software) and zillions of Asian programmers line up to do our work for a cup of rice per day ...we are out of business..period. I think we have about five years max.

Yesterday I saw a Chinese SDS concrete drill for sale here... a decent looking 1800W machine complete with 24 drill bits ranging up to 28mm that the equivalent DeWalt brand sells here for about NZ$950....the Chinese price...$89.00.

Now here is the kicker. Your income may collapse to 1/10th of what it is now....but do you think your bank is going to cut your mortagage to match?

Phillip, If you read the lables I think you'll find that some of the AD components are made in China. I wont mention the brand, but we've been buying a type of relay from the same brand for mabey 30 years. 30 years ago it was made in Wisconson (USA), 20 years ago it was made in Mexico, 10 years ago it was made in Japan. Now it's made in China. I cant help but wonder where it'll be made in another 10 years... On the moon mabey?

Your correct. The "kicker" you used for an exampe is what's going to happen to our standard of living. Our kids are going to be working at Walmart as stock people placing Asian goods on the shelf and feeling lucky about it. At 6 or 7 dollars and hour they will be living in projects. The M10 will no longer the the M10, but the M2. The rest of us will be service economies importing all manufactured goods from Asia.

Like it our not, your children and grand children are not going to enjoy the same standard of living that we or our parents have been enjoying.

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That is about the most pessimistic statement that I have ever read!!

Geeez The standard of living has gotten better everywhere.
I'll bet that you live in a bigger house than you grew up in.
I'll also bet that your family has more stuff than you parents or grandparents did.
The Bucket analogy is rediculous too.
The "Bucket" is not a static thing that cannot grow.
The Western worlds "bucket" will continue to grow, and the third world or whatever you want to call it's "bucket" will also grow.

Don't be so damned negative. Everything is gonna be OK.
Enjoy Life and have fun.

Actually my house is 1000sqft larger then my parents was. But I dont represent the normal working joe either....Most kids I grew up with in GP MI. could never afford a house there now..

On a grand scale the bucket is relitave to the educated popluation, or the economic potential. While we are bantering over "inteligent design" the Chineese have ended the Cultural Rev, and have started serioulsy educating their populous to compete with us on all levels. We are quickly becoming a two level service economey, Professionals, and Stock boys or short-order cooks with no manufacturing jobs in the middle. Not everyone is going to be a Doctor or Lawyer. MI Tech has closed down their mining school. The mines arnt panned out, but it's just cheaper to import rather then to mine and manufacture here. So what happens to all the miners & manufactures. They go to work at McDonalds...So do their children...

I'm not being negative, just pragmatic. It's a changin world out there..Get ready and get your kids ready.

elevmike said:

It's a changin world out there..

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That's right and there are endless oportunities.

did you check here???


http://www.plcs.net/classifieds/

Fred Raud

Fred Raud said:

did you check here???


http://www.plcs.net/classifieds/

Fred Raud

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Ok so look at the ads for Employment Wanted. What single peculiar commonality do you notice with a majority of those ads?

keep your head up,,there is always work out there,,no matter where your at,,and be thankful with what you have,,cause you COULD be in one of those third world countries working for cups of rice,,

i know that may not seem like the best advice in the world,,but if it keeps you going,,let it,,i just woke up from a 16 year alcohol induced whirlpool and have spent a good amount of time floating form job to job always doing well where i was,,but someting always happened to cause me to lose it,,and being im hard headed and diseased, it took me along time to come around and when i did i was pretty damn scared,,still am pretty scared,,i feel like a strange in my own skin and even talking to my supervisor now i lack the confidence i once had being my mind is working much faster than my motor part is letting it express it,,even simple conversations to explain simple things that while drunk was easy,,sober is a task,,

now 4 months + into a sober life it gets better every day and i remember when i decided to become sober i was afraid id ever find a job doing what i love to do,,but sure enough im back working again with a lot of opportunity infront of me and at 33 i still have alot of life left to make a success of,,\

and in your situation,,be thankful you havent lost your job,,it happens to the best of people who far from deserve it,,use this time to your advantage to build up your resume,,your contacts,and network and always continue to learn,,the only people who lose are those that give up.....


Fred Raud